Empathy for Our Queen? ( As a Mother)

No wonder she goes straight to see her horses whenever she gets home. Have you noticed that she only smiles in company with her animals or at the races!
Who breaks the news to her over her cornflakes?
Ugh bad enough to have one wayward child but what with Prince Philip crashing about in the range rover and Charlie and his antics. I'm surprised she didn't take to drink years ago.
Edward stays below the radar but remember when he was filming Wills at St Andrews?

You see even without trying I know more about the Royals than I know about my own family.
Yes I do feel sorry for Queenie. I think the monarchy will dissolve after her.

I feel quite sorry for the whole lot of them !
None of us (unless your name is Kim Kardashian) know what it is like being constantly in the public eye and criticised constantly.
PA is in a lot of ways typical of his class - money but little sense! He also seems to have the attitude , dating back to Victorian times, that anyone in aristocracy can do what they like and it will be hushed up. He made a bad choice of a "friend" when all is said and done and because the culprit in this story decided to take his own life so couldn't be held up to public scrutiny, let's just pick on his mate!
The photo of PA and the Queen would most probably have been taken months before then published at the required time just to point fingers. Quite frankly, I no longer buy a newspaper because of their warped reporting and twisting facts .

Grammaretto Charlie's antics? What have I missed?

I wonder what antics too merlot , and oh the shame, my husband was in a car crash too.

How could anyone think it would be OK to inflict Andrew on any 'far flung' country? What has any other nation done to deserve him?
I imagine he's quite easily convinced the queen that he did nothing wrong, that the girls were over the age of consent and that it's all a Fuss About Nothing. If so, then no I don't feel sorry for her. That interview with the brilliant Emily Maitlis came across as a lesson in how to be breathtakingly arrogant but he won't be the only one in the royal family to approach this event in that way. I expect they all blame the press for stirring it up.

I was brought up to respect the Royal Family was a matter of course, but it has become harder over the years.

None of the Queen's children have behaved themselves well. I remember thinking as a teenager that if I had behaved as Princess Anne sometimes did, I wouldn't have been able to sit down for a week.

A few years ago, one of the two Spanish princesses warmed Prince Andrew's ears, remarking that she couldn't take it upon herself to say whether his language befitted the Duke of York, but it certainly wasn't what an Infanta of Spain was accustomed to having to listen to. He actually attempted to slap her back - nice gentlemanly conduct, and was only prevented by the then Prince Willem of the Netherlands grabbing his arm.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were responsible for bringing their children up and I cannot pretend to say, whether they are or are not responsible for the way their adult children behave.

Most of us feel that we tried to teach our children what we thought was right, when they were small, but that now they are adult they have the right to choose what they think is right.

So no, I don't feel particularly sorry for the Queen, but honestly her children are no credit to her, although not worse than most of their ancestors.

I have a certain amount of sympathy for her as a mother. Anyone who has been disappointed in an adult child can surely sympathise. However I do actually feel it's time for her to spend more time with her husband who is said to no longer be well enough to travel south to London. I think now is as good a time as any to set up that regency with Prince Charles that has been mooted, which will move the monarchy past Andrew's mistakes and kind of reset it. Yes Andrew will still be in the news but no one could point the finger at the new Prince Regent as in any way responsible for how Andrew is. And I think Charles would not have a soft spot for him the way the Queen does.

I cannot relate to the Queen in any way at all. Her life is so far removed from mine. All we know about the family is what the tabloids, and occasional orchestrated TV appearance divulge.

Her children have been brought up rich and with a sense of entitlement. It cannot be unexpected when one goes off the rails.

grandtanteJE65 what has Prince Edward done wrong? And I don't count Its a Knockout, which was perfectly moral if a little undignified. And I don't count leaving the armed forces. Most of us wouldn't join up and there is nothing immoral about arranging to leave, it's not like he just went awol.

I agree with all that, Gingergirl.

I went off the Queen when she colluded with Johnson in proroguing parliament. It was illegal, and that's one of the few times she would have been justified in withholding assent. Before that I was a huge admirer. Another thing that I then realised was, there is an anecdote, often repeated and never refuted, that when she was about to have an audience with Idi Amin, her servant said to her "there is a gorilla waiting to see you". Well it wasn't the Queen who said that but surely the servant would never have dared say that to her if he had not been totally certain it's a joke she would have enjoyed. I'd prefer to see the royal family demoted to a tourist attraction and lose their position in the constitution.

HRH could make him Governor General of Rockall - we still own that. And then leave him to cool his heels until Charles takes over.

And if Charles has any sense he'll forget about him altogether.....

(I wonder if HRH secretly thinks "if it weren't for the fact I'm the head of state you wouldn't dare try to get away with half of the things you get up to......")

Why is everyone so surprised at this recent ‘revelation’ I wonder - the royal family has lots of skeletons in the cupboard and it starts right at the top but people seem to close their eyes to it - the Queen has put up with her husband’s infidelity for decades and it’s only been their money and status that have kept a lot of it under wraps - it’s no wonder that other royals think they are immune from living decent lives -

It surely has always been this in the Royal family. There has been scandal for many many centuries, it comes with the job. Its only the publicity that makes it different. They court the media coverage so have to learn to take the good with the bad.

To be fair, GoldenAge, it's entirely a private matter for an individual couple how they view extramarital sex. I am really only interested in royal misbehaviour when it hurts someone else or impact on the welfare of the public. Obviously if Andrew was using Epstein's services as procurator of young girls then that's on worst end of the spectrum. If he was simply being "unwise" in a PR sense by remaining a friend of such person that's bad for his image but not really doing any harm to anyone else. I do think there is enough grounds for suspicion that it would be in order for him to speak to law enforcement however.

Racist remarks like that are totally wrong, yes, but that was only hearsay ReadyMeals so there is no justification for spreading that rumour.
I expect HM did not wish to meet Idi Amin and who could blame her. He was a murderous tyrant.
One of the downsides of her job.

Well it was a bit more than a rumour, it's been printed in a memoire - I think perhaps more than one. I'd not have repeated it had I simply heard it on the grapevine - it's already in the public domain.

Do I feel sorry for The Queen?
Yes I do but I think she should have retired at 65 years of age.
I know she said that she would dedicate her life to her Country but she could still have done so.
Had she done that,Charles would have become King when he was much younger until waiting until he is over 70 years of age .
I feel sorry for him.
He would be now retired and we would have King William on the throne now.
The Queen could spend her time with her husband in Sandringham where I understand he now lives.
We should not be responsible for any of the “spare Royals.”
Princess Margaret’s children seem to be capable of earning a living,Prince Andrew’s daughters have apparently married well and my favourite member of the Royal family ,Princess Anne who works harder than any of them ,decided her children would not be burdened by any titles and are I assume living a comparatively normal life albeit they are probably a lot better off financially than most of us.

They are a dysfunctional family. No surprise there and no different from many other dysfunctional families.

If Mrs Windsor wasn't queen but living on a council estate, some might be slating her abilities as a mother (I know some do anyway, rightly so), calling her feckless and a disgrace and plastering her all over the Daily Mail.

As it is, many people murmur that she's had a rough time, poor thing, and needs our support. Not in my name.

I'd never heard it before ReadyMeals

I think William is only just now becoming mature enough to be King. In another 10 years I think will be optimum time for him to accede the throne, or maybe the regency idea will become the norm with monarchs retiring from duties at 80 while retaining the crown nominally.

Lancslass1

If the Queen had retired when she was 65, Charles would have become king in 1991, when for whatever reason, his marriage was on the rocks, I think they were separated by then. Not much of a start for his reign.
The monarchy isn’t some vast company, with CEO’s, resignations, redundancies.
I very much doubt if William wants to be king at this stage in his life, with a young family. I bet he hopes his father lives to a good age to keep putting off the fateful day.

Also remember a very interesting documentary about Princess Anne when she turned 60. She was asked if she intended to retire. Very ruefully, she said that you only had to look around at what some much older family members were still carrying on doing, so she doubted if it would be looked on favourably.

Lancslass I think, having vowed to devote her life whether long or short, to our service, she has done just that, although others in the family do carry out many of her duties on her behalf.
I wonder if she'd rather have been having a cosy dinner with Philip last night on their 72nd wedding anniversary than out greeting whomsoever she had to meet (can't remember who).

Calendargirl I was about to say the same. Charles had a lot of personal problems and it's only really in the last 10 years he has restored his dignity and his emotional equilibrium.